The Antarctic ice sheet is rapidly shrinking: in 200 years it has become thinner by 450 meters
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Over 200 years, part of the ice cover has decreased by 450 meters. Scientists discovered this by boiling the ice core.
The ice core analyzed in the study, published in the journal Nature, was drilled from the Skytrain Ice Rise glacier.
It is located at the edge of the ice sheet, near the point where the ice begins to float and become part of the Ronne Ice Shelf, writes CNN.
Scientists extracted it in 2019 with the help of drilling, which lasted 40 days. They gradually lifted the thin cylinder of ice, then cut the core into pieces, packed them in insulated boxes, which were stored at -20°C, and shipped to Great Britain.
| Photo: goinyk/Depositphotos |
There, scientists measured water isotopes in the ice core. It helped to find out what the temperature was in the past. Lower ice sheets indicate warmer temperatures, Wolff said.
They also measured the pressure of the air bubbles. Lower and thinner ice contains air bubbles under higher pressure.
In this way, scientists found out that the West Antarctic ice sheet suddenly and sharply decreased about eight thousand years ago. It is particularly vulnerable to climate change because the land beneath it is below sea level and slopes downward. When warm water gets under it, it can melt quickly.
According to scientists, this study proves how quickly Antarctica is losing ice.
“We knew that at the end of the last ice age the ice sheet was larger than it is today. However, much less is known about exactly when this reduction occurred.
Now we were able to say exactly when and how quickly he retreated.”– noted Eric Wolff, a glaciologist (ice scientist) from the University of Cambridge in Great Britain and the lead author of the study.
According to the received data, the ice sheet was retreating and thinning very quickly. And the danger is that it could start again, and it will happen very quickly, Wolff says.
This could have tragic consequences in the future: sea levels will rise. The West Antarctic Ice Sheet holds enough water to lift it about five meters. This will cause floods that will destroy coastal cities around the world.
“These findings are alarming because once it happens, there’s really very little we can do to stop it.” – said Isabelle Rovell, ice core researcher from the British Antarctic Survey and co-author of the study.
David Thornally, an oceanographer and climatologist at University College London, said the results of the study were “amazing”. However, he cautioned that because the scientists looked at a period eight thousand years ago, when climatic conditions were different, the results are not direct evidence of what might happen today.
The obtained data can only provide “an understanding of how the ice sheets collapse.”
We will remind, the melting of glaciers can lead to cooling in Europe.
Read also: Ukrainian polar explorers showed the “blooming” of snow in Antarctica. PHOTO
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